November 2008

November 2008

October 17, 2008 "The economic crisis and the Ten Commandments"

As we Americans find ourselves mired in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression back in the late 1920’s and throughout the 30’s, signals of alarm are all about.

What does it all mean?

In spite of the recent bailout legislation passed by congress, credit contraction is still the major issue as financial markets struggle to find a path to recovery. Millions of us around the country can’t help but wonder: are we going to be alright? Three months from now, six months, a year and beyond??

October 3, 2008 "When we lose our parents"

On September 19th, my father died, one day shy of his 91st birthday. My mother had already preceded him in death in January of 2007. Certainly, it’s a blessing that my parents lived long, productive lives; and it’s a great joy to remember that they had sixty-seven wonderful years of married life together.

Still, for me, there’s a sense of deep loss in my father’s death. My parents have always been the core element in my identity as a person. They were that place called home, that I called every week (in later years, every night). They were the glue that held our closely-knit family together—the source for updates on what was going on with my three siblings and their respective families

September 19, 2008 "Hurricane bluster"

There are, indeed, things to be taken seriously. Are we listening? To the mood of the community and nation? To the calls from the underside for change and a more hopeful future? To the cries from underneath for health care, more equitable education, and more opportunity to provide for our families.

The rumblings from Ike awaken us from our slumber; and we remember. It’s time to get prepared. Time to do what we need to do to brace ourselves for the very real danger tomorrow poses.

September 5, 2008 "Letting go and moving on"

In our life-journey, many of us say things or do things that we wish, looking back, we could undo. In a relationship, perhaps, or in our career path; with our finances or with some moral dilemma or challenge. Hey, it’s the human situation. We’re not perfect, we’re human; and sometimes we stumble and fall and make mistakes, and sometimes we even fail.

August 15, 2008 "Why male athletes struggle with retirement"

The question for someone like Brett Favre eventually becomes, does the appeal of playing outweigh the appeal of going out on top? At this juncture, Favre’s answer seems to be a resounding yes. However, after a few months back (if that, in fact, happens), he may change his mind and the appeal of retirement may win the day once again.

Moving on and the meaning of life. For many of us, in all realms of life, retirement can come too soon and leave us grasping for a new sense of meaning and life-purpose. More and more, retirement-age people are asking: if I like what I’m doing, why should I retire? To do what?

August 1, 2008

July 18, 2008 "Patriotism: a messy sorting out"

If we reflect on it, what is patriotism? Is it sporting an American flag lapel pin on our dress or suit coat? Is it displaying an American flag in front of our home on special holidays?

Is patriotism supporting our government no matter what it does, or is it respectful dissent when our government falls short of our expectations and our sense of our Founding Fathers’ ideals?

June 22, 2008 "Geography anyone?"

A greater awareness of global geography, along with a refresher course on world history, would go a long way in helping us put a face on the rest of the international community, an important step in building relations of mutual understanding and peace.

The demands of the twenty-first century are going to radically alter the way the world functions and, therein, the way we Americans need to embrace the world if we are to be successful while, at the same time, being constructive global partners with our brothers and sisters across the planet.

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June 6, 2008 "Remembering fathers"
One of the most challenging parts of being a father is finding the right balance in our role as husband, father and provider. My father did an excellent job of sorting all this out. All the time, as my three siblings and I remember our childhood, dad seemed to seamlessly traverse these roles.

At our best, we fathers want to make sure our families are okay. We want our wives to feel cherished, honored (as the mother of our children) and fulfilled as a human person. We want our children to have the best possible chance to realize their innate gifts and to lead purposeful and contented lives.

May 16, 2008 "Are you living the good life?"
The process is where we struggle and strive and work things out; it’s where we learn and grow as we live out our commitments and responsibilities. Our lives are about the journey, which urges us to stop and smell the roses along the way.

One day at a time. Part of our problem as Americans is that, too often, we’re in a hurry. We want instant everything; instant food, instant transportation, instant good health, instant results at work. Due largely, perhaps, to our consumer-crazed culture, we’re not a patient people.

May 2, 2008 "Just a little more"
How much do you want in life? Or, stated differently, how much do you think you need? How much income and security? How much knowledge and insight? How much reassurance about health and safety?
If we tell the truth, what we really want is as much reassurance of certainty that we can get.

April 18, 2008 "Beyond stereotypes"
At best, a stereotype gives us only a superficial reading of a real person. Therefore, when meeting a person for the first time, while we can’t help but hold some stereotypes in mind, we have to be ready to move beyond these stereotypes at any point.

For me, personally, relationships are more about spirit than any other unifying category. While age and personal interests are important, to a point, they’re never the primary determinant of who I value spending time with.

April 4, 2008 "Race Talk"
Inside the black church. The black church, since its inception during the days of slavery, has historically been a place where black people (this was particularly important for the black male) could be free. Free to stand tall and lead; free to unpack deep-seeded pain, egregious injustice and dehumanization. Free, if only briefly, to be a man (or woman), a dignified human being.

Couple this with the biblical precedent for strong prophetic preaching (i.e., preaching truth to power), and you have a recipe for the sort of fiery and incendiary language unveiled in some of Rev. Wright’s sermons. In a word, as any of us who have spent much time in the black church know, fiery preaching is not an uncommon experience. That is not to say we agree with it; but it is to suggest that we understand it.

March 21, 2008 "Finding our way back"

Finding our way back from the jaws of any defeat, failure or set back—from times when we haven’t been at our best—is to a great extent a matter of attitude and perspective; it’s a question of belief, faith and hope.

March 7, 20008 "A key to success and inner peace- don't covet"

February 15, 2008 "Election fever"
Leadership that inspires. I don’t know about you, but I want to be inspired. And I want to be inspired by a leader who displays size as a person. A person with size, a big person, is a person who can deal with the diversity of our human situation in ways that make everybody better.

A person with size is a person who understands ambiguity, that life doesn’t come to us in clear shades of black and white but, rather, in various hues of gray. To have size is to—all the time—see the big picture, the inter-relatedness of all things.

February 1, 2008 "Called"

...our calling comes over time and over years of sorting ourselves out. Often times, discovering our calling only comes when we’re willing to risk trying new things. For example, traveling abroad, learning a new language, taking an interesting class, or attending a challenging seminar can all be springboards to uncovering a special calling in life.

January 18, 2008 "Change is all the rage"
The inevitability of change. Change is, of course, nothing new to any of us. We may resist it, even going to considerable ends to avoid it, but change, ultimately, will have the last word. We’re always in the grip of one transition or another. Along with the ongoing unfolding of the universe, as the days march on and the years pile up, change is the way of things.

January 4, 2008 "Taking the high road"
With the dawning of the New Year, it’s an opportune time to take pause and dare to imagine the year ahead. What do we want it to be like? What are some of our deepest hopes and dreams?

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December 21, 2007 "Are we alive, or just going through the motions?"
Christmas and the holidays, with the New Year on the horizon, are an intense time of the year. It’s not just the busyness—the rushed shopping, festive office parties, and the harried schedules around family gatherings.

December 7, 2007 "Through the eyes of hope"
"With the holidays breaking upon us, it’s a wild and crazy time. We can sort of feel it in the air. The pace picks up. Little by little, the pressure builds … to the inevitable point where we have less and less discretionary time.
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November 16, 2007 "The first holidays without mom"
Always, it’s the best of times and the worst of times. The best of times for obvious reasons: family gatherings of all kinds and—with bowed heads and celebratory hearts—the living out of our family traditions. Holiday traditions carry forth some of the peak moments of our lives. Poignant memories overflow, just as new expectations rise once again in our eager spirits

October 19, 2007 "Who do we exclude?"
The reality of our lives is that we exclude all the time, some of it intentional; most of it unintentional. To some extent, we exclude by where we live, where we go to school, where we work out, where we shop, and where we go to church or synagogue.

Much of the time these decisions are based on convenience or safety. Still, there is a natural tendency to live out our lives in situations and communities where people are more like us."

October 5, 2007 "When God seems absent"

"Crises of faith are not uncommon to the human situation.  Nor are they necessarily unhealthy.  It’s human to doubt, to wonder, and to long for a more transparent presence of the Divine.

In the cover story of the September 3rd issue of TIME Magazine, we learned of the stunning revelation of Mother Teresa’s fifty-year crisis of faith—her prolonged dark night of the soul experience when God seems somehow painfully absent.

For me, these unfoldings elevate Mother Teresa’s stature all the more as a person of compassion and love, making her even more saintly and worthy of our veneration.  She was as human as you or I.  Hallelujah!  We can relate. " 

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September 21, 2007 "Taking the first step"

My guess is that people of belief (and unbelief) pass through similar valleys of existential doubt and cold fear from time to time.  It’s the human situation.  Moreover, often times it’s useful to hang-in-there with our doubts and not be too quick to suppress them.  If we’re eager and persistent, the light will come.

On the other side of our doubts, what if Julian of Norwich is right?  What if the joy (and the hope) of resurrection faith recaptures a flicker of the joy at creation—a joy to be realized again in the last days?   

September 7, 2007 "Taking the first step"

The good news about a process of discipline is that anyone can do it.  Any human person can be disciplined enough to achieve their goals.  Sometimes we lack the discipline because of the way we think about the challenge before us.  In our mind, it’s become too large, too improbable.  When in fact, if we can break it down into more manageable parts (manageable size and time frame), the challenge becomes more doable. 

Breaking things down into manageable time segments is important also because it reduces our anxiety.  Moreover, it’s helpful to realize that we don’t have to have everything all worked out today, at this moment.  Part of the discipline process is doing what we can today (without going overboard) and then repeating the process again tomorrow.   

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August 17, 2007  "Back to School"
New opportunities, new challenges.  On the plus side, however, back to school is an opportunity for a fresh start.  Maybe fourth grade wasn’t such a good experience.  But you’re in fifth grade, now, and it’s a new year.  It’s a chance to develop new friendships, put forth a new attitude, and see where the spirit leads"

August 3, 2007 "Professional sports and the challenge to the sacred trust"

"... the spirit of sport is violated when the competitors cheat.  The whole meaning of the games that we play is undermined.  Performances are altered, therefore affecting final outcomes.

The sacred trust.  If we think about it, there’s a certain sacred trust in all of life.  We assume, we trust, that people are going to comport themselves in a particular way.

In community life, there’s the trust of some level of common civility, decency and good manners.  There are always exceptions of course, but for the most part, most people indeed are civil, decent and reasonably well-mannered."

July 20, 2007 "Are you happy with your life?
"...We’re sailing through life; things seem to be going well.
We have the nice home, reliable transportation, a job that we like, wonderful family and
friends … and yet, one day we run out of fuel.
We can’t explain it, but there’s a throbbing emptiness within rooted in a yearning to
somehow be connected to something more.
The emptiness prompts in us the feeling, What’s it all about? Where am I going with my
life? Am I happy? Am I fulfilled? Am I living a life of meaning and purpose?"

July 6, 2007 "Let freedom ring … and responsibility, too!"

"The Statue of Liberty remains a symbol of our freedom around the globe. As Americans,
we are proud of our freedom, and rightly so. But what about responsibility for this
freedom? Where is the statue of responsibility for the freedoms we so cherish?
Like everything else (the point that needs to be made), freedom has a context. We have a
right to free speech, but we do not have a right to shout out fire, fire—on a ruse or on a
bet from a friend—in a theater or stadium packed with people."

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May 18, 2007 "Love never ends"
As we work our way through things, it’s encouraging to be reminded that tough times are love’s moment; love’s moment to rise up, to lift our spirit, to reinterpret today in light of whatever new possibilities have sprung forth. 

The truth is, love can take us to new places—love that deepens commitment, that strengthens resolve.  To know again, to be reminded, that our family and friends believe in us, that they value us, that they want so much for us to be well and alive to the promises God holds for our lives.

May 4, 2007 "Virginia Tech massacre: a glimpse into another world ."
" As the harsh reality of last week's Virginia Tech massacre continues to settle in, on the other side of the horror and the outpouring of compassion and sympathy for the fallen and their families, part of what we're left with is a glimpse into another world ."

April 20, 2007    "Are we measuring Up"
"When you reflect on your life, do you have a sense that you've measured up as a person? As you think back, have you achieved or underachieved? Have you surpassed or fallen short of personal and parental expectations? "

April 6, 2007- "American Idol and the American dream"
"However, what's both fun and delightful with American Idol is watching the evolution-the unfolding and development-of the young aspirants along the way (Indeed, many of them are truly diamonds in the rough ). With some of them, each week there's a new sense of presence and an elevated confidence"

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March 16, 2007 "Dealing with temptation"
“Everyday we make choices about what forces within us we’re going to feed, about what vision of our life we’re going to live out. Our challenge through it all is to feed the voices that affirm the common good and to seek a closer walk with the One who is the Giver of life in all seasons.”

March 2, 2007 - "Love and marriage; it's hard work"
“Part of what makes marriage and any committed relationship hard is that we have to give up stuff we don’t want to give up. We have to make adjustments, talk things through, value and appreciate the individual differences of the other person. To the point: we have to be willing to find common ground.”                      Return to top

February 16, 2007- "Stuff we need to be able to talk about"
“What is clear is that burying the feelings is not a healthy path to venture down. Always, in appropriate ways, these feelings need to be expressed. Expressing them allows us to deal head-on with what is bothering us. On the other hand, ignoring the feelings (trying to act like they don’t exist) often times results in anger and resentment building up in our spirit.“

February 2, 2007: "When we lose a parent"
"After all, it’s mom. We only have one mother; and always, mothers are sacred. They birthed us and nurtured us into adulthood. They traveled with us through thick and through thin. In most circumstances, they loved us unconditionally. We could always count on mom."

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- January 19, 2007: "Looking for the good in life"
"In the busyness of our lives, with our hectic schedules and over-loaded routines, easily, we lose sight of the power of the present; the power of the moment to inspire and remind us again of the essential goodness of life."

- January 5, 2007: "Truth-telling and looking ahead"
"It’s the New Year, a time for lofty resolutions and the high hope of new beginnings. With the passing of the old year and the dawning of the new, it’s a symbolic time for an experience of grace."

- December 15, 2006: "It's the holidays! Cut yourself some slack and enjoy"
"Are you going to enjoy the holy season that is before us this year? Or are you determined to ruin it with elusive expectations of perfection and with a rat-race schedule that leaves you gasping for air?"

- December 1, 2006:  "This I believe!"
"What do you believe? What are the principles, ideas, and truths that you hold to be foundational for your life? About what can you say, with conviction and passion, This I believe?"

- November 17, 2006:  "Okay, we got it wrong -the Dolphins and other stuff"
"Think how boring our lives would be if all we ever did was call it right. Make the right investment, choose the right life-time mate, opt for the right career, and select the right players in fantasy football."

- November 3, 2006: "Dealing with stressful relationships"
"The key in any stressful relationship is to gain enough control so we don’t feel trapped and powerless. There comes a point in many relationships where—simply put—we have to take care of ourselves. We do that by taking control of the relationship. A good way of taking control is to establish boundaries."                                     Return to top

- October 2, 2006: "First Impressions"
"How we respond to the challenges these games present is telling. The comments we make, the way we accept our successes and failures. All of this reveals aspects and dimensions of our spirit, our character, and our general disposition towards the big picture of life."

- September 15, 2006: "9/11: Five years later"
"September 11, 2001 will forever be a reflection point in the history of our republic if not, indeed, in the history of our planet. The sordid events of that fateful day, and their consequences, continue to shape our conversation and agenda around the globe."

- September 1, 2006:  "Don’t let your good become the enemy of your best"
"For any of us in life, it’s easy to yield to the tug of mediocrity. The problem with not giving our best, with being too satisfied with our good, is that, once done, it becomes a habit. And easily, we convince ourselves that it’s good enough."

- August 18, 2006:  "A vision for peace"
"As the mindless violence with Israel and Hezbollah plunges, daily, into a deeper and ever-widening abyss, the spirit of the fallen cries out: where will it all end? What has to happen to bring a cessation to the endless spiral of death and destruction on both sides?"

- August 4, 2006:  "Are you compulsive?"
"Compulsive impulses live, to some extent, in all of us. The impulse, for example, to put things in place and to maintain a certain order to our life. The impulse to get it right with descriptive information that is being shared, or to set the record straight in the who’s right/ who’s wrong games we play with one another."

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- July 21, 2006:  "Restful vacations"
"Whatever happened to the rest and recovery part of vacations? For countless Americans, they’ve apparently become a thing of the past. This is particularly the case when travel plans include endless hours at airports, train stations and bus depots."

- July 7, 2006:  "More than winning and losing"
"Although competition is often derided by some in our wider culture, apart from the competition (the actual game), we don’t know to what heights we can rise. We don’t know the extent of our personal resources: the passion in our heart, the toughness of our spirit, the artistry and athleticism of our body."

- June 16, 2006:  "Beyond regret"
"Regrets, over time, can build into a sort of low level depression to where they wear us down and sour our spirit. Regrets, too, of things undone, things we never followed through on; like finishing an academic degree or some certification program to further our career."

- June 2, 2006:  "Beyond we and they"
"All the time, we point the finger at they. The problem is, how to get we and they together? How to convince people and persuade people to embrace our life-situation from a we/ we rather than the we/ they perspective. We/ they thinking serves only to divide and alienate. Whereas we/ we promotes harmony and shared responsibility."Return to top    

- May 19, 2006: "Are you here? Where are you?"
"Do any of us ever feel like we have enough time? Enough time for family and friends? Enough time for exercise? Enough time for personal rest and recovery? And because the common rhythm of our lives is rush, rush, rush, much of the time we’re not dialed-in to the moment. We’re doing one thing, but focused on something else."

- May 5, 2006: "You can't have it all!"
"In compromise, we meet people half way. Spouse, child, parent, colleague in the workplace, whomever; we have to meet people somewhere in the middle, giving up things we’d prefer not to give up but giving them up, nonetheless, because that’s what the relationship, to be healthy, asks of us."

- April 21, 2006: "When the best is drawn out of us"
"In its purest form, part of what makes the world of sport so engaging (to the point of being a spiritual experience) is that the competition itself (the pursuit of victory) becomes the occasion for the best to be drawn out of us. We don’t know how good (or bad) we are. We have a sense, perhaps. But we don’t really know."

- March 17, 2006: "Too much stress?"
"For some people, the mere mention of the word sin sends them running for the hills. Too easily, we associate it with guilt or being a bad person. However, in the larger sense, sin is a poisoning or overloading of the spirit; it's a distancing from God."

- March 3, 2006: "Marriage and love"
"The problem with love in this conversation is that it is too narrowly defined. By love, too often we mean interpersonal compatibility and sexual gratification. Too easily, the depths of love get lost in the feelings and hormones of romance."

- February 17, 2006: "Divorce: from the child's point of view"
"Seldom do we hear much of the suffering of children of divorce. But think about it! To begin with, the child is left with two worlds (the world of mom and the world of dad) to reconcile and make sense of. The usual tension and conflict of bringing two worlds together in marriagenormally handled by the parents is passed on from the adults to the child."

- February 3, 2006: "When we lose a child"
"Apart from separation from God, the worst thing that can happen to us in life is the death of a child. It doesn't matter how old they are. They're still our babies. Furthermore, we're supposed to outlive them. When they precede us in death, our life plan and expectation paradigm are turned upside down."

- January 6, 2006: "Let's go and see!"
"Sometimes the only way we're going to find out who we are and what's going on with us and with the world about us is to go and see for ourselves. But we can't just go through the motions of checking it out. We have to go with expectation in our spirit and hope in our heart."       Return to top

November 2008 "America, behold your future!"

October 2008 "The bailout that is shaking our foundations"

Growing up, my parents spoke often of the Great Depression which millions of their generation lived through back in the late 1920’s and 1930’s. The recent financial crisis that has sounded across our land is our worst such crisis since those depression years.

September 2008 "Going for it"

Don’t sell out or conform too much to the world around us. All the time, the unfolding inertia of the world is towards mediocrity. When you try too hard or put forth too much effort, those around you feel diminished or pressured to keep up. Over time, they may even resent that you are going for it with such zeal and heart. The will of God does not nudge us towards mediocrity.

July 2008 "Conversations about race Continued"

A sacred conversation on race, therefore, has this biblical understanding as its spiritual backdrop and context. For in the larger sense, racism is always a violation of the sacred. It is both a stain on the life force and a distortion of the divine purpose of our Creator God. In this sense, it is sin.

June 2008 "Conversations about race"

As Christians and as Americans, there’s an atonement theme here that presents an opportunity for us all to move to higher spiritual ground. At our best, none of us wants to live in a country where racism has any currency in our common national life.

However, as the demographics of election 2008 suggest and exit polls confirm, race remains an unresolved element in American life and culture. Still, on the positive side, it appears to be less of a hot-button issue than might have been anticipated.

At some point, any conversation on race has to deal with stereotypes. Try as we might, it’s hard not to stereotype on all sides. Fair or unfair, it’s the way we sort out our lives. From our personal experience—both direct and indirect—we assume certain behaviors from certain persons and groups.

May 2008 "That we may all be one"
Clearly, from a biblical perspective, this is the will of our Creator God—that we find ways of coming together, ways of uncovering common ground so we can lift up the common good; that we find ways of bringing the red states and the blue states together, ways of creating occasions for conservatives and liberals to sit down and have adult conversations about things that matter.

April 2008 "Race Talk"
The black church, since its inception during the days of slavery, has historically been a place where black people (this was particularly important for the black male) could be free. Free to stand tall and lead; free to unpack deep-seeded pain, egregious injustice and dehumanization. Free, if only briefly, to be a man (or woman), a dignified human being

March 2008 "Belief is personal "
Always, there’s a healthy agnosticism in the best of our Christian faith. I say healthy because to doubt certain elements of the Christian story is human. If we take away the doubt completely, it’s no longer belief, but something more, like certitude or something that would need proof to achieve respected validity.

The resurrection accounts in the gospels are not facts; they’re about faith and a sense of warming from within in the human heart. Everywhere, there’s mystery and wonder. The empty tomb; the varying experiences of the disciples, like Peter and John in the above reading from John 20.

February 2008 "Lent and the vision of the suffering servant'
As we move into Lent now, on the way to holy week, with Easter on the horizon, it is a time for reflection. As is always the case in Lent, images of sacrifice fill our memory and imagination. The fact of Jesus’ suffering and death must, at some point, draw us in.

All the time in or church, we talk about the suffering/ sacrificial love of Jesus. The depths and meanings of this love define for us who Jesus was … as well as who he is for us moderns some two millennia later.

January 2008 "It’s a new year; take the high road!'

Taking the high road (the spiritual high road, where the holiness of God’s presence pulsates with life and hope for all people) always makes things better in the long run. On the high road, pride and ego are subordinated to the larger good for all people, be it for family, community or the wider world.

December 2007 "When light breaks forth like the dawn"
.... apparent acts of humility, even worship, are seen by God in the wider context of love and social awareness. It is our acts of love and compassion that make a difference in the world and that promote God’s purposes.

The light that no darkness can overcome is the light that shines from the very heart of our Creator/ Redeemer God.

November 2007 "Having a thankful spirit"
Always, there are two things God asks of us in all seasons: a humble spirit and a thankful heart. Humility and gratitude: always a good plan.

Sometimes having a thankful spirit takes a little effort on our part. Sometimes we have to slow ourselves down enough to look at the big picture of our lives. So much of our lives is attitude and perspective.

October 2007 "A time to be grieved"
In the context of our community, our nation, our world, is there ever such a time—a time to be grieved? Is there a time when current conditions, present-day injustices, evoke such stirring feelings of sadness and sorrow from within that we are, literally, grieved by it all?

September 2007 .... Prayer and spiritual growth

"When you pray, do you ever feel challenged about connecting with God?  Do you wonder on what level you are connecting? 

For me, prayer is a very human experience.  It is utterly vulnerable activity.  I’ve always been struck by the Apostle Paul’s words in verse 26 above: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought.

With prayer, there is always the question of distance from God.  How to bridge the distance, how to find the right words??  Always, these challenges are before us.  When we view God as utterly awesome, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and on and on, we’re left with the sense that our words, no matter how eloquent and heart-felt, are to some extent always inadequate."

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August 2007 "Persistence and perseverance"

"Sometimes, the best we can do in life is to just keep after it. In other words, persist and
persevere. We never know when a breakthrough will occur. We never know when a new
awareness, a new disposition, or a new understanding and orientation will win the
moment.
In chess, sometimes the winning play comes only after serious and deep focus on the
options. It doesn’t come in a flash, but only on the wings of persistence and perseverance.
So much of our lives is like that. Like the man in the brief parable above, we have to
persist, not give up, and keep our purposes on the front burner."

June 2007 "The heart of the gospel"

"Certainly, for the Apostle Paul, at the heart of Christian faith is
the cross of Christ. Always, Paul has a real sense that Jesus really suffered and that the
truth of God, revealed in the Savior, is the truth of suffering love.

May 2007   " Will our children have faith ?"

" Although there are few references in the Bible to children and even fewer references to the challenge of parenting, still, we tend to assume in the Church that the Christian education of our children is a high priority for parents and families."

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